📔 Holes - 구덩이

 

 

📕  Holes 

by Louis Sachar 

 

 

This story starts with a boy's episode where he happens to get a pair of shoes falling from the sky on the way back home after school to give his father who tries to invent a way to recycle old sneakers but it turns out that a famous baseball player donated them for the homeless and the boy, Stanley Yelnats, gets falsely charged with theft. Where he ends up being is camp Green Lake, a juvenile detention center for boys, and starts with a life of digging a hole every day. What a boring routine it seems but as he finds a gold tube, a lipstick container, the story develops into what you never imagine.

 

The author, Louis Sachar is definitely a genius in storytelling. Be careful not to start to read at a late hour, or you would end up staying up all night. It's full of unexpected and interesting episodes and you will never get bored turning pages and chapters to the end. It is a story not only of getting over bad luck cursed through four generations moving through time and place but also about questioning why we should never stop digging a hole in our lives, which seems to be good for nothing.

 

Life can't be fair until you get over all the hardships and taste the sweetness after their bitterness. Stanley is fat and nobody wants to hang out with him in school but he loses weight, gets a friend, and ends up being no other than the one who breaks the curse running in his family by digging holes. All his sincerity and hard work turn the tedious digging into good luck, not a curse. That’s what I believe is true luck. No pain, no gain. Heaven helps those who help themselves. Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Holes (구덩이)는 미국의 청소년 문학상인 National Book Award와 가장 권위 있는 아동문학상인 Newbery Medal을 수상할 만큼 영미권에서는 청소년 필독서일 만큼 명성이 자자한 루이스 새커의 작품이다.

 

스토리가 워낙 흥미진진하고 흡인력이 있어서 당연히 영화로도 제작되었다. 

 

이 책을 읽으면서 영어 학습적으로 주목했던 점은, 

 

어휘적으로는 다양한 신체 동작을 익힐 수 있어서 너무 좋았다. 

 

왜냐하면 어떤 몸동작을 영어로 구사하고 싶을 때가 있는데 막상 딱 맞는 표현이 잘 떠오르지 않는 경우가 많다. 

 

 

문법적으로는 분사구문, 가정법 구문이 정말 많이 등장해서  그러한 예문을 하나하나 정리해가면서 읽는 것도 좋은 학습 포인트가 되지 않을까 싶다. 

 

 

 

Holes+Small Steps 전2권 패키지 저자 : 루이스 새커(Louis Sachar) 출판 : 롱테일북스 2012.04.02 상세보기

 

구덩이 국내도서 저자 : 루이스 새커(Louis Sachar) / 김영선역 출판 : 창비(창작과비평사) 2007.08.10 상세보기

 

 

 

🎯  Useful  Expressions

 

 

🌱  jam A into B    A를 B에 힘껏 밀어 넣다

• He tried to jam it into the earth, but the blade banged against the ground and bounced off without making a dent.  (그는 삽을 땅에 힘껏 밀어 넣으려고 했지만 겉돌면서 파보지도 못하고 튕겨져 나왔다.)

 

 

 

🥕  pry up    파 내다    = dig up / out

• He leaned on the shaft and pried up his first shovelful of dirt, then dumped it off to the side. (그는 삽자루에 몸을 실어 첫 삽을 떠올려서 옆에 쏟아 놓았다.)

 

 

🥬 good for nothing    아무짝에도 쓸모없는 

• “I used to think you were a good-for-nothing book reader,” he said. ("나는 니가 아무짝에도 쓸모없는 독서광이라고 생각했었어."라고 그는 말했다.)

 

 

🥑  rip open    (위험한 인물/동물) 탈주/도주 중인, 못 잡고 있는 상태인

• Stanley’s blisters had ripped open, and new blisters formed. (Stanley에게 생겼던 물집이 터지고 이내 새로운 물집이 생겼다.)

 

 

🍏 dawdle   꾸물거리다  

He couldn’t afford to dawdle. (그는 꾸물거릴 여유가 없었다.)

 

 

 

🍈  know better than to V    ~할 정도로 어리석지 않다 / 바보가 아니다

Stanley had never really thought about it before, but he knew better than to tell X-Ray he wasn’t right.  (Stanley는 그에 대해 전에 생각해본 적은 없지만 X-Ray에게 너는 틀렸어라고 말할 정도로 어리석지는 않았다.)

 

 

 

 

 

To be continued...🙂